Just an Average Youkai
by Ashika
Summary: He was unremarkable, one of the dime a dozen. He was just a petty and almost mindless creature. An average youkai.


Just An Average Youkai  
  
*~*~* Power. I need power. I want power. I crave it. The need consumes me. *~*~*  
  
He was unremarkable, one of the dime a dozen. He was just a petty and almost mindless creature. An average youkai. Nothing special about him, every other youkai wanted power, too. Hell, he had never even gotten close to the famed power that he wanted. He had friends that had, but they were dead.  
  
Tales ran through the gossip mills, and it was said that the power was in the hands of an already powerful group of humans. He snorted at the mere mention of the species. He may be an average youkai, but the average youkai was still many times more powerful than a puny human.  
  
The group was said to consist of two true youkai, three humans, and a.hanyou. A lowly and pathetic hanyou. His small black eyes glittered with hatred against the hanyou. A hanyou was to be spat upon, evidence of a joining between a human and a youkai. Never to be accepted by the lowly humans - even they would spit upon a hanyou - nor accepted by the far superior youkai. Even so, the true question behind the child would be: What youkai could stoop so low as to take a human as a mate?  
  
Unfortunately, the hanyou owned a sword, also rumored, to be able to kill a hundred youkai with one swing. What could an average youkai do against such a sword?  
  
The two youkai were almost as unremarkable as himself. A kitsune and a neko- youkai. The kitsune was practically useless; he had not grown into his powers yet. The neko-youkai was worthwhile to have around.it could fly, and transform into a large neko-youkai with large fangs to match. Not something this average youkai would enjoy going up against.  
  
The humans were disgustingly powerful. A taijiya was the first human widely known of the powerful group. Exterminating youkai for a living, she was a human to be feared by even the more powerful youkai. Everyone knew that the taijiya had been exterminating for generations. The neko-youkai was also a pet of hers. She was definitely not a human he would like to meet anytime soon.  
  
A houshi was in the group, as well. If that were not enough, he was infamous for his Kazaana, the air rip that could suck anyone and anything into its eternal void. Could he become a victim of his own weapon? That would be nice, and make life a whole lot easier.  
  
The last human was a miko. She also held the Shikon no Tama. How powerful she was, though, nobody knew. It was undecided amongst the youkai whether she was very powerful, and just never showed her power, or whether she had almost no power and hung around the others for some unknown reason. Most youkai judged her to be useless to the group. This average youkai decided that she was powerful - it was always for the better not to underestimate his opponent, should he ever come across the group.  
  
"Shino, get the hell up. Now." The youkai looked balefully up at the baka who dared to disturb his rest, only to discover that the baka was really his superior. Shino cringed and sat up straight. His brown and leathery wings quivered as the rest of his body shook with no small amount of fear. He had just looked at his superior without reverence! He could be killed for such insubordination.  
  
His superior laughed, sending shivers down Shino's spine. "Just get the hell up. Orders from Naraku: Be waiting to swarm Inuyasha and his companions at the Kagenaya [1] village. They will expect us, but they can hardly defeat us. True youkai against humans and a hanyou.they will be no match for us." He chuckled, thinking of the demise of the hanyou.  
  
Another leader would have been cautious with his threats, even if they were only heard by inferior youkai. This one was brash and foolish. He would most likely be amongst the first to die. Shino knew he would be among the last.  
  
Shino was an ugly youkai, at least by human standards. A deceptively frail and purple body, he easily fooled his lesser enemies into believing that he could never defeat them. Even his long purple tail (shaped like the tail of the devil that those Christians seemed to believe in) did not intimidate anyone. It's sharp and pointy end held no challenge for them. Still, those foolish enough to underestimate him usually ended up dead. His unusually shaped claws (probably his only distinguishing factor from the numerous other youkai) could cut through just about anything; from flesh to metal, he could cut it with ease. He was still an average youkai; he did not have the brainpower to engineer anything that needed more intelligence than the average out and out battle. No mind games, no illusion tricks, no sly moves for him.  
  
He was also a Hider. He hid when there was danger, he was a coward. This is why he would be among the last to die, he would hide in the back until the back became the front. He was not proud of this fact, nor was he ashamed. It was not something he ever regretted, seeing as it had expanded his lifespan many times over.  
  
"Be ready to go in five minutes." Damn, his superior was looking at him harshly, as if he has said it more than once. Hopefully he hadn't. Most likely he had. Damn.  
  
"Yes, superior." Shino's trembling stopped the moment his superior turned away.  
  
"And stop your damned twitching. It's unsightly." He laughed cruelly and left the room, and Shino was shaking in fear again.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Numerous clouds in the night sky hid many things. The moon's light, the stars, hundreds upon hundreds of youkai.  
  
They floated in the sky, waiting for the arrival of Inuyasha and his group. How he had been lured here, it was anybody's guess. Still, the tension and excitement - they were really going to go up against the infamous Inuyasha! - was high.  
  
Shino hung to the back of the mob of youkai. He remembered the plan to wait until the end. At least if he waited, Inuyasha and his group would be more tired.right?  
  
A loud shout brought Shino from his schemes. He peered through the cloud and looked to the ground. A quick look around revealed a group of six individuals, what species each of them were was undeterminable from this height. But an educated guess would show them to be the Inuyasha-tachi.  
  
It seemed that one of the Group was yelling at, who looked to be, Kagura. She stood smirking and yelled back,  
  
"Inuyasha.Fuji No Mai!"  
  
A flick of her wrist opened her fan and signaled the start of a battle, and Shino pulled back from the cloud.  
  
Hundreds of youkai, with a liberal amount of Naraku's Poison Bees in- between, shot down to the battle. Shino smiled grimly; his superior was among the first to dive, and among the first to die.  
  
A carefully placed KAZE NO KIZU! - or was it so carefully placed? - was heard throughout the ranks of youkai. A panic set among the youkai still hovering and forced them down. Shino held fast and waited until the last to fly down.  
  
Youkai were falling left and right. The Inuyasha-tachi worked seamlessly and effectively. Purifying arrows and a giant boomerang sliced easily, much too easily, through the mob. The staff of the monk battered any youkai who came near him. Even the kitsune was fighting; using foxfire and a multitude of different objects.  
  
Shino wanted to run away, fly away and hide like the Hider he was, and yet.even as he flew closer he felt a pull of power. He searched for the origin, and found a faint glow of purple near the girl in a white and green suit. He flew closer to her.  
  
A shout of Hiraikotsu interrupted his train of thought as the giant boomerang nearly sliced off his wings. His eyes widened as he was released from the pull of power, and he ran. He ran towards the forest he knew would provide a safe haven for at least a small while.  
  
But even as he fled to the forest, he could feel the draw of the power, again.  
  
Shino waited quietly for Inuyasha and his group to come through the forest. A harsh laugh emerged from his mouth; the Shikon no Tama would be his.  
  
*~*~*  
  
"There weren't any shards! No shards! How could they do this to us?!"  
  
"Inuyasha. . .that was the POINT. Baka."  
  
A loud SMACK was heard through the woods.  
  
"Now who's the baka, Miroku? At least I am not stupid enough go around groping a girl who's stronger than me.not that there is a female stronger than me."  
  
Shino still waited. It would not be too much longer; they would camp for the night under the supposed safety of the trees, and then the shards would be his. The power would be his.  
  
The band of people stopped under a large tree, arguing amiably all the while. After such a big battle, they had been lulled into a false sense of security. There would be no better time to steal the shards.  
  
A fire was soon crackling, and the humans and youkai were sleeping not long after. The hanyou was a problem; he was still awake and searching for any sign of trouble. Shino sneered; Inuyasha would not be able to sense him. An average youkai's odor was beneath the sense of smell of the crass hanyou's nose.  
  
A smirk crossed Shino's face as Inuyasha finally seemed to doze off. He slipped quietly through the bushes and was soon above the girl with the green skirt. The Shikon shards pulled him down, and he looked for their glowing luminance. The lull of their power was consuming him, little by little.  
  
They were hanging on a string around her neck, and he reached out his hand to take them.  
  
Schlick!  
  
Shino stopped in his tracks, his hand stretched halfway to the shards. A queer feeling in his chest.he looked down to see a hand through his torso. He blinked. The hand slowly pulled back and out of his body. He fell to the ground next to the girl. He looked up to her face, and her eyes were trained directly on him.  
  
He tried to speak, but found that his throat would not work. His eyes darted sluggishly back and forth; the rest of the Inuyasha-tachi sat looking at him with wide eyes, weapons in hand to take him out if he foolishly tried anything else.  
  
"Youkai no baka! Who are you and what do you think you're doing?" A clawed hand pulled him off his knees and held him up to a face. Golden eyes framed by white hair frowned at him. Shino's eyes were started to blur, he couldn't see too much anymore.  
  
His voice croaked, "Shikon.shards. I need the.shards. Give me.the shards.you have." The golden eyes flickered with amusement and another clawed hand plunged through his body again.  
  
"Inuyasha, stop it! He can't do anything else, just look at him! He's harmless." Shino turned his head to the voice, even as Inuyasha retorted harshly to the speaker. He caught her eyes and her soft blue eyes shimmered with pity. He sneered and watched as her eyes widened in shock. He turned back to the still shouting Inuyasha and pulled up his arm.  
  
His claws sliced down and blood spewed from the new wound on the hanyou's arm. Inuyasha growled and immediately set about killing Shino right then and there.  
  
The shards no longer pulled at him with their power, they only mocked him for being so foolish as to think that an average youkai such as him could ever aspire to be the holder of such powerful objects. He felt his body become cold and his eyes could no longer see.  
  
Death held him in his arms not long after that.  
  
*~*~*  
  
The Inuyasha-tachi left soon after Inuyasha made his last blow. Chattering with subdued excitement - a youkai had gotten a little, ok a lot, too close for comfort - they walked out of the forest into the break of dawn.  
  
The events of yesterday soon overrode the incident of last night. They continued on their journey without a second look back.  
  
And the ugly youkai was left to the sands of time. He was just another battle along the way, another trial to overcome. Another demon to send to Hell for his attempt to hold the Shikon no Tama. There was no one to remember him, to remember that he had never aspired to be more than he was. To remember that he had loved to be himself, and had never wished to hold the Shikon no Tama before he had neared it. No one to remember.  
  
Just an average youkai.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
A/N: So this is just a little bit weird. I admit it. Ah well.  
  
[1] The village was a random word. It sounded Japanese. Works!  
  
Feel free to contact me, whether by email (ratty210@hotmail.com) or by the little purple button right down there. 


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